PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has formed a committer to review the progress on NOCs issued to investors in the forest growing areas of the province.
The committee would examine different angels of the problems of the investors and review the legality or otherwise of the NOCs and would submit its recommendations within two weeks.
The chief minister said we have to ensure the conservation of forest but simultaneously we would also generate resources of our mineral resources.
He was presiding over a meeting at his office in CM Secretariat which was attended by Provincial Ministers Taimur Saleem Jahgra, Ishtiaq Urmar, Sultan Mahmood, Dr. Amjad Ali and administrative secretaries of the concerned departments.
The meeting reviewed the legal dimensions of the NOCs awarded to investors within the forest growing areas for the exploration and exploitation of mines and minerals.
The meeting was also kept abreast of the progress emerging out of the Supreme Court decision and the recommendations of the committee earlier constituted for the purpose.
The chief minister underlined the need to find out a viable solution in the light of the law for the investors who had been given NOCs by the mineral department.
The legal reservations of the forest department should be taken care of. He directed that new committee that he constituted would review the status of NOCs and would give a guideline for resolving the issues in this regard.
The committee recommendations should be presented within two week.
Mahmood Khan said forest conservation was very much important and therefore we could not ignore it because of the environmental threat.
However, we have to get benefit out of our mineral resources in order to widen the fiscal space of the province. He directed a three prong approach that included the development of the province, the natural conservation and economic driven needs for all decision making in this regard.